Content area
Full text
Abstract
The following paper presents the solution to the problem of searching the best shape - structural form of the bottoms and optimal dimensions of the main cylinder of the carding machine with consideration to the criterion of minimal deflection amplitude of its shell. The Finite Element Method has been applied for searching the optimal solution. As a result of the performed analyses, reduction of deflection amplitude at approximately 77% has been obtained. The determined optimal structural form and dimensions of the cylinder enable application of a new textile technology - microfibre carding as well as improvement in the quality of traditional carding technology of woolen and wool-like fibres performed on roller carding machine. The final stage of the work has been to determine the influence of manufacturing tolerances of the cylinder and metallic card wire on the amplitude of the main cylinder deflection.
Keyword
carding machine, main cylinder, optimization, Finite Element Method
Introduction
Carding is one of the most important textile technological processes, whose aim is intermixing loose fibers and removing impurities and short fibers, as well as straightening and parallel arrangement of the remaining fibers. Woolen and wool-like fibers are reworked with the use of roller carding machines.1 Its scheme in Figure 1. If the carding machine is the last machine in the carding set, the oscillating blade (doffer comb) combs and condenses the fibers after carding and the web is formed. On the surface of the main cylinder (the swift), doffer and working rollers (workers and strippers) there are teeth of a saw metallic wire (Figure 2) or card clothing needles, which are reeled coil to coil with appropriate tension.
Carding quality depends to a large degree on the height and shape of the gap between the pairs of swiftand worker as well as the swiftand doffer. During carding of thin fibers, the gap between the last worker and the main cylinder is between 0.3 and 0.15 mm. Considering desirable uniformity of the web, its shape should be close to the shape of a rectangle. Taking into account the durability of the metallic card wire teeth (the hardness of a tooth decreases from top to base), the cylinder should not be ground after the wire is reeled. It is worth adding...